Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Dog That Bit Blumenthal

When he was Attorney General, current U.S. Senator Dick
Blumenthal kept in his office a couple of dozen pit bulls, more commonly known
as lawyers, who used to harass companies and people with the threat of
interminable lawsuits, after which many of them would cough up settlement dollars
-- the terms of such settlements not to be publically disclosed -- that would
allow Mr. Blumenthal to boast that his office “pays for itself.”

Cases taken up by the Attorney General’s office are not
necessarily won on the merits. They are endurance races. Often, a defendant’s
material resources give out before the merits of the case can be decided. Mr.
Blumenthal was “earning” millions of dollars for the state, he was greasing the
publicity skids that eventually would carry him into the U.S. Senate, and
companies that did not want to see their profits diminish over the years
because of prolonged litigation were contributing their “fair share” to
Connecticut’s burgeoning state government.

It was a win, win situation for Mr. Blumenthal.

After much hectoring from leaders in his party who earlier
wanted the Attorney General to leave his two decades old sinecure and run for
some, almost any, more politically punishing office, Mr. Blumenthal finally
decided to kick the dust of the Attorney General’s office from his feet and run
for the U.S. Congress following U.S. Chris Dodd’s leave-taking. Having assured the good government folk back
home In Connecticut that he would not -- WOULD NOT – become a lobbyist on his
departure from the Senate, Mr. Dodd accepted a position as Hollywood’s chief
lobbyist. The transition from the Senate to Tinsletown proved effortless for Mr.
Dodd. No liberal Democratic politician ever suffered the bends moving from the
beltway to Hollywood.

The Attorney General’s office has in its arsenal three
litigation weapons that unbalance the usual level playing field whenever
plaintiffs and defendants meet in courtrooms on the field of honor: The
Attorney General’s office may claim partial sovereign immunity to protect
itself against suits brought against the office; the office has time on its
side, while a small business or state employee whistleblower can easily be put down
by protracted litigation; and money is no object for an office that, under Mr.
Blumenthal’s administration, earned its own keep through accelerated
litigation, particularly against companies willing to settle suits that brought
them unwanted publicity.

Perhaps the two most effective instruments in Mr. Blumenthal’s
tool box when he was Attorney General were the subpoena power of his office and
his ready access to Connecticut’s media. Rare was the day when one of Mr.
Blumenthal’s carefully edited, adjective crammed press releases did not arrive
in the newsroom, sometimes in bunches. The information in many of these
releases was culled from affidavits Mr. Blumenthal often served on camera shy
potential litigants. It was Mr. Blumenthal’s power of subpoena and affidavits –
that and his dramatic prose – that put the sizzle in the bacon he almost daily
served up to Connecticut's media.

Now The tables have been turned.

Mr. Blumenthal, who has carried many of his vices and few of
his virtues into the U.S. Senate, we learn from a story in the Washington Times,
is resisting a subpoena served on him by Care One Management LLC.

Filing in federal court in New Jersey, Care One’s lawyers
note: “Senator Blumenthal’s office was particularly receptive to the [New
England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199] e-mail communications
and even collaborated with the NEHCEU on
a press release and open letter to the National Labor Relations Board on the
NEHCEU’s behalf.”

The company has issued subpoenas to Mr. Blumenthal,
Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, a fellow Connecticut Democrat, and Gov. Dan Malloy. The
company says the governor was beholden to the union as a result of
“outsized campaign contributions.”

The three Connecticut politicians supported strikes
against Care One that led to a declaration of bankruptcy, and one telling
communication between a Blumenthal staffer and a union official has made its
way somehow into the Washington Times' report:

In one exchange, a Blumenthal staffer said
his boss couldn’t attend an event at a nursing home as workers returned to
their jobs last year.

“By the way, Dick cannot make the 6:30 start on
Sunday," the staffer wrote to a union official. "He was wondering if you would
do a similar event for the second shift? (sic) Maybe more likely to get
press.”

“Fabulous," the union official replied.

Mr. Blumenthal is resisting the Care One's subpoena that may entail further
intrusions on his privacy because, Senate attorneys say:

Even if the unions made "false and misleading statements" to Mr.
Blumenthal, the motion said, such deception is protected.

The Senate attorneys argued that the subpoena for records
and testimony from Mr. Blumenthal "constitutes
an inappropriate fishing expedition into congressional files."

They also argued against releasing any information on
the basis of a constitutional clause that immunizes members of Congress
from lawsuits arising from their legislative work.

In the course of his career, Mr. Blumenthal has been more than familiar with the possible damage to a reputation that may arise from carefully edited excerpts taken on sworn oaths and released to a friendly media. The fourth richest Senator in the U.S. Congress also is used to sovereign immunity for me but not for thee, as well as the usufructs of power that flow unimpeded to those who occupy positions of privilege -- all of which is fabulous vintage Blumenthal.